Hello friends! It's Ashton, excited to be spending this fine Friday flashing back with y'all to talk about one of my favorite albums of 2014 (and all of life ever).

Judah & The Lion is a "folk-hop" band who are proudly from Nashville, TN and obviously love making music. I've listened to Judah & The Lion for a few years but didn't really fall in love with the band until they visited MC this past spring for CAB's Brick Street Bash and my eyes were opened to all the greatness that is J&TL.

Though seeing them live on the brick streets was great, the most exciting point in my life as a Judah & The Lion fan took place on September 9th when they released their newest album, "Kids These Days" which has been on repeat for two months.

Y'all, "Kids These Days" is my jam. It's an album that makes you dance, keeps you calm while studying, and sings with you on road trips. These guys put their heart and soul into every one of the eleven songs on the album and it's almost impossible to listen to some of the lyrics without smiling. As three guys who love Jesus, life, and music, "Kids These Days" is a record that every college student can identify with. I remember the first time I listened to the songs "Somewhere-In-Between" and "Twenty-Somethings" screaming out of excitement at how much I identified with the lyrics.

As Nolie mentioned in our "Fall Break Adventure" blog, I traveled to Nashville to see Judah & The Lion in concert. Without question, I listened to "Kids These Days" for a majority of the drive and loved every minute of it. The concert was the perfect, fun way to start my break from school and increase the love I have for the band and the album.

I have been to an embarrassingly large number of concerts in my life (confession: my first concert ever was Shania Twain. I was in fourth grade. It was the time to be alive.) but the J&TL concert was one of the best yet. The guys did a great job of showing their (extremely) fun side, which included a lot of dancing, a cover of R. Kelly's "Ignition (Remix)", and more energy than I think a lot of us knew what to do with.

At one point in the show, Judah (no surprise that he is the front-man of the band) made a point to transition us all into an attitude of worship. As a crowd, we joined together to sing to our Creator and it was surreal. One of my favorite things about J&TL is that they are a band made up of people who genuinely love The Lord but don't force it onto their listeners. You get to decide what kind of attitude you have when listening to their music, which is what makes it so differenet and wonderful.

Friends, do yourself a favor and go listen to "Kids These Days" right now. If you don't feel like listening to that record, then listen to the EP they released last year, "Sweet Tennessee" (they love Tennessee so much) or their worship album "First Fruits" to turn your heart and mind to Christ. Judah & The Lion will not disappoint you, from their cool hair, hip clothes, and fantastic music, they are a top notch group of guys who love what they do and who they play music for.

So love them back and start now! Check out this video of one of my favorite songs, "Rich Kids" and love life a little more!

I hope you love Judah & The Lion as much as I do and that their music makes your day a little brighter.